Biblically, When does life begin?
Biological human life begins at conception. The main question that needs a biblical answer is what part of the franchise on life does a child in the womb have. This depends largely on whether the biological human life form in the womb is a living soul or not, a debated issue. The question, however, bears directly upon such issues as abortion and how we as Christians are supposed to respond Until we answer this question, we have no idea what we are doing.
It is irrefutable that at the point of conception the fetus is not just a polyp, a nodule, or a tumor, on a woman’s body but an independent biological human life form. It has at least two-thirds of its trinity: a body and the spirit of life, but does it have the third part; is it a living soul with a full franchise on life? At conception, the spirit of life is conferred on that single unique cell and it immediately begins to grow and form into a body.
Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Psalms 139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Jeremiah is often misinterpreted to mean before you were in the womb, before conception, God knew us. This is an error in interpretation. It is before God formed us in the womb he knew us and that is because all our members, physical and mental features, were written in God’s book, our DNA. We have but one reference to a child in the womb becoming a living soul having the full franchise of all the rights of a living human being: that happens at birth when it is separated from the mother.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
If you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you must yield to the Scriptures on this point. At the first independent breath, a child becomes a living soul, not before.
The Fetus is a physical biological human body endowed with the spirit of life. Not being a living soul till birth the child in the womb is not eligible or in need of salvation nor in any danger of damnation. Upon death it is the same as any dead human body; it returns to the dust from whence it came. This is the big issue with religious thinking that the fetus will suffer eternal damnation if killed. This is not biblically true. If a child dies before it is born it is as if it never was.